16 Ways That Summer Camp is the WORST Job You’ll Ever Have.

Working at a Summer Camp might seem like the best way of spending your summer break. Although getting to spend 3 months working and travelling in America sounds glamorous, the reality is very different.

Let’s look at why working at camp is simply the WORST…

1. You Will Develop a Weird Accent.

At camp you will make friends from ALL over the world and you will pick up little snippets of the way they speak and the words that they use. When you get home, your friends won’t have a CLUE what you’re saying…mainly because you’ll have a weird English/American/Australian/Hungarian/Dutch hybrid accent.

2. Lie-in’s? NO CHANCE!!

Most days at camp, you’ll be up by 7am. Eugh. Just think…you’re going to have to spend ALL day in the sunshine, hanging out with some amazing people, getting involved in loads of different activities. If you’re really unlucky, you might have a trip day where you’ll have to tolerate going to a theme park or water park.

3. Health Issues

I’m sorry to say that a summer at Camp will leave you with long-term, irreversible health problems. As you will spend 90% of your day laughing and smiling, it is very likely that you will return home with laugh lines and lockjaw from smiling ALL THE TIME.

4. Your Old Friends Will Hate You

When you get home, you’ll want to share all of your camp stories with your old friends. You will have just spent 2-3 months in the States…they will have spent 2-3 months working in a terrible bar in your home town. Very soon, they will switch off whenever you bring up the subject of Camp.

5. Camp Makes You Grow Up…a little bit

In an ideal world, we’d be free of responsibility forever, wafting through life without a care in the world. Summer Camp cruelly strips you of this feeling, giving you a group of campers to look after, ensuring that you have to act in a grown-up, selfless way.

6. Tired Eyes

America is interesting! America is different! While you’re at camp, your eyes will be incredibly busy, taking in new sights everyday. Then, when you go travelling, your poor little peepers will be overwhelmed with the amount of looking that is available to you. When you get home, you’ll need to lie in a dark room for weeks.

7. Eating. SO. MUCH. EATING.

America is know for its generous portions + Summer Camp is no different. Say goodbye to that beach body you’ve worked hard to achieve and say HELLO to piles of French Toast, Waffles, PB&J, Pizza, Chicken, Tacos, Sloppy Joe’s, Toasted Cheese + many MANY other delicious, but nutritionally dubious foods.

8. Having NOTHING to Complain About!

Think about any job you’ve ever held. I imagine that in ever role, you’ve found something to complain about. Maybe your boss is the worst human being. Maybe you’re working too much. Maybe you’re not working enough. Maybe you hate your co-workers. Maybe you have no passion or enthusiasm for the job. At camp you’ll be working in a positive environment, designed for fun. If you love whining, nitpicking or gossiping about how your job is the WORST…you’ll hate camp.

9. Relentless Sunshine

Us Brits LOVE talking about the weather. It’s basically all we do. When you’re at camp, it will be sunny for 99.9% of the time. Not only will you have to cope with the feeling of the sun on your skin, but you’ll also have to come up with other topics of conversation. You will become VERY boring if you start every conversation with ‘So…it’s pretty hot today, isn’t it?’

10. Your Brain Might Actually Explode

You will make so many memories at camp and experience so many new things! Although this is good news, there is every chance that you will either forget everything you learned before camp…or your brain may actually explode with the sheer volume of new information.

11. Being Made to Feel Talentless

During every session, there will be at least 1 camper who is incredibly talented. They will make you feel like you’ve wasted your entire life and will make you re-evaluate your existence.

12. Swim Test

During the first week of camp, you’ll take the swim test. This will determine whether you’re seen as a liability if you’re within 100ft of the lake. Despite knowing that you can swim, you will go through a crisis of confidence + have a number of sleepless nights, working out if you can remember how to stay afloat.

13. ALL The Clothes!

You’ll go to camp with a case full of clothes. When you arrive, your camp will lavish you with THOUSANDS of different t-shirts. By the end of the summer you’ll own 1 shirt for every day of the week, a cabin shirt, a Colour War Shirt, a camp hoodie, a specialist group t-shirt, a shirt that everyone bought because it was the trend at camp, shirts from the thrift store and a bunch of shirts that your campers left behind. How do you get them home? You wear them. All of them. At the same time.

14. Rest Hour is a LIE!

During camp, there is a magical time of the day called ‘Rest Hour.’ In theory, this should be the time where your campers relax, write letters home or indulge in quiet activities. In reality, there is very little resting. Honestly…why should you rest when there is so much going on? You have plenty of time to sleep when you’re at home.

15. Feelings

When camp is over and your campers are boarding the bus, you will be reduced to a snotty, damp, crying mess. Even though you will only have been at camp for a few months, you will feel like you’ve known everyone forever + the thought of going back to the normal world seems terrible. Summer Camp IS the worst…because nothing else will ever compare to how incredible it is + you’ll spend your whole life trying to recapture the feeling of working at camp.